Wharfedale vintage driver woofer/subwoofer build ideas

toups

Well-Known Member
My main speakers are Wharfedale W70D that double as front speakers for a home theater setup. (For stereo, used without processing in direct mode.) For theater use, I need to add a subwoofer since when using the W70D in large mode without a subwoofer, the woofer bottomed out while watching "Inception." Adding a subwoofer (picked up on freecycle) solved the bottoming out issue but now I am ready to add a better subwoofer.

I have some options that I am considering. Note I already have the Wharfedale drivers listed below in my stash for future projects (and no I didn't cannibalize a W90D, someone on the auction site did and the cabinets were no longer available):

1) Use two W90D 12 1/2" low woofer drivers with the polystyrene plugs to build a pair of subwoofers using plate amplifiers.

2) Use two W70E 15" woofer drivers to build a pair of subwoofers using plate amplifiers.

I am a little concerned that the above Wharfedale drivers won't handle the LFE channel from some movies.

3a) Abandon the idea of using the Wharfedale drivers as subwoofers and do a build with a modern high (single) excursion driver.

3b) Use the two W90D low woofer drivers to build a "sidecar" to the W70D to extend the bass range of the W70D. (Actually, I may have the drivers to build a pair of half W90D cabinets to augment the W70D to make a pseudo W90D setup.)

Now with respect to subwoofers, I am not looking for extreme bass for theater use but a reasonable addition and offloading the LFE channel from the main W70D speakers to avoid overloading them.

Any thoughts, suggestions or discussions?

Also especially if I do option 3b, what is the design of the low woofer compartment of a W90D? Low woofer compartment size? (Assume it is about 23" x 14" x 13" which is 1/2 of a W90D cabinet.) Sealed or vented or ported compartment? Stuffed? If so heavy or light?
 
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From what I have been able to find, the low woofer on the W90D is vented to the rear using slots in the rear enclosure wall.
 
From what I have been able to find, the low woofer on the W90D is vented to the rear using slots in the rear enclosure wall.

Actually, I now believe that the quoted comment is incorrect. From pictures I have found that I trust are W90D variants, the two woofers are both in the same cabinet and it is a sealed acoustic suspension version. There are other versions (earlier than W90D) where the the cabinet is divided into 2 halves and the side with the traditional woofer is sealed while the side with the woofer with the polystyrene plug is vented to the rear with a series of slots. So I am not sure which variant had the slots.

Note the W90 looks a lot like two W60 variants glued side by side. Not sure which letter to attach here.
 
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